Smash events divert pumpkins from landfills, reduce methane chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As people rush to get rid of their jack-o’-lanterns in favor of Thanksgiving decorations, thousands of ornamental pumpkins will likely end up in landfills. Lacking oxygen and unable to break down and return to the soil, these discarded gourds decompose and fill the atmosphere with methane — a greenhouse gas that is more than 25 times as powerful as carbon dioxide in trapping heat. According to .
In this week s Good News Sunday column, we recap stories about an Addison-based nonprofit that finds uses for things that might have been thrown out, a 101-year-old World War II vet returning for a VIP tour in Europe, and a breast cancer survivor honored at a Bears practice.
For Kay McKeen, finding new homes for used items isn t just diverting waste from landfills, it s a rescue mission. At McKeen s environmental education nonprofit SCARCE in Addison, things many people would toss in the garbage without a second thought are given another chance at a useful future.